South African jurist Richard Goldstone has been left reeling from Israeli President Shimon Peres’ criticism of him.
South African jurist Richard Goldstone lambasted President Shimon Peres on Thursday for a personal attack on him, which the president launched in response to a damning report he compiled on the Israel’s winter offensive in Gaza.
“I would say that the President’s comments are specious and ill-befitting the Head of the State of Israel,” Goldstone said in an interview with Haaretz.
“I am content to be judged by my actions over the course of my career both in terms of my professional judicial career and my voluntary service.”
Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)
9:25AM: The nutty pro-terror.
12:58AM: A new monument in memory of the victims of 9-11 has been dedicated in Jerusalem.
“All the feelings that we’ve been through came back to me, tears simply fell from my eyes,” said Miriam Avraham, who lost her daughter Alona in the New York City World Trade Center attack eight years ago. Abraham attended a ceremony dedicating a new Jerusalem monument in memory of the victims of the September 11 attack on the United States.
The monument, which was designed by artist Eliezer Weishoff at an estimated cost of NIS 10 million ($2.6 million) is nine meters high and is made up of a waving American is transformed into a memorial flame. This is one of the only monuments outside of the US that features the names of all the 2,980 victims of the attacks as well as their home countries. Five Israelis are among the dead.
Weishoff began thinking of a way to honor the memories of the terror attack’s victims eight years ago. He originally thought of designing a medallion. After receiving then Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert’s blessing and the approval of environmental organizations, the sculptor contacted the Jewish National Fund and built the monument together with the JNF.
“The concept was a burning torch with the American flag waving with its folds creating the upward flow of lines,” Weishoff explained, “I made sure that the New York City municipality sent us a piece of the ruins from the Twin Towers and we planted it as a basis for the statue itself.”
This is not the first time Weishoff’s work is dedicated to terror victims. He also designed the monument commemorating the three women killed in the Apropo coffee house bombing in Tel Aviv in 1997.
The Jerusalem monument is not the only one in Israel dedicated to the victims of September 11. Rishon Lezion, Ness Ziona and Beersheba all have monuments commemorating the victims.
